Lessons learned from the NSF IGERT program: Cultivating student motivation in the interdisciplinary and international context

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program: Global Traineeship in Sustainable Electronics brought together an interdisciplinary group of students to study the environmental, economic, and societal aspects of the global electronics lifecycle. There were three cohorts altogether, but the dynamics of each group were substantially different. This third cohort actively sought additional experiences outside the original planned courses and trips. The aim of this work is to glean insight into what and how specific curriculum design may promote the learning experiences in which students take initiative beyond the scope of the programs. We identified four factors that might influence the experiential learning within a framework incorporating the self-determination theory (SDT) and the expectancy-value model: value, relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Utilizing a non-experimental approach, we surveyed the last cohort to identify when and why they felt or failed to feel motivated during the program and what curriculum modules were most valuable for their learning experiences. We found that all four factors (value, relatedness, competence, and autonomy) grew throughout the program. In particular, the international workshop in India marks the point when students started to see shared values with their peers; the self-organized seminar course marks the point when students developed the feeling of autonomy. The most valuable aspects of the program were ranked to be international field trips, peers, and team projects. For the latter two aspects, defined in this work as the group dynamic, the most important factors for building a sense of community are group pro-activity, cohesiveness, and attitude.